GENERAL SYMPTOMS OF DISEASE. 35 



Quickness of the pulse differs from frequency. Quickness 

 refers to the time occupied by each beat of the pulse, whilst 

 frequency has reference to the succession of the pulsations. A 

 frequent pulse is that in which the number of beats is greater 

 than usual in a given time ; a quick pulse is that in which each 

 beat occupies less than the usual time, though the whole number 

 may not be much increased. Quickness of the pulse is not 

 so difficult to appreciate by the touch in the larger domestic 

 animals as it seems to be in man, and for the reason that the 

 approach to frequency and quickness is normally much greater 

 in man than in the horse and ox. The contrast, therefore, 

 between abnormal quickness and the natural condition is more 

 manifest in the latter than in the former. 



Quickness of the pulse is due to the mode in which the 

 ventricles contract, and always indicates irritation and little 

 strength; the heart makes a quick, short contraction, wdiich 

 differs much from the somewhat prolonged, and more or less 

 forcible, contraction of real energy and excitement. The jerking 

 pulse is a modification of the quick pulse, and is characterised 

 by a quick, forcible beat, followed by a sudden abrupt cessation. 

 This pulse is found in cases where the nervous irritability is 

 much increased, or it may be due to some deficiency in the 

 aortic valves. 



The slow pulse — pulsus tardus — or, as it is termed by Dr. 

 Sanderson, the long pulse, is the reverse of the quick pulse, and 

 indicates a prolonged or slow contraction of the cardiac ventricles. 

 In inflammatory fever the pulse was formerly described as 

 frcquens magnus et celer, and was said to differ from that of 

 plethora, which was described as magnus et tardus^ — distinctions 

 which are not now held to be competent. 



An infrequent pulse — pulsus rarus. — This kind of pulse is 

 often associated with slowness, and indicates disease of the brain 

 (compression), a disordered condition of the digestive apparatus, 

 and is often indicative of that condition of the system manifested 

 by excessive urination — polyuria. In degenerative disease of the 

 heart the pulse is often more infrequent than the cardiac con- 

 tractions, because the impulse of the heart is too feeble to be 

 transmitted to the arteries. 



The mutual relation of the p)ulsations may refer to their 

 succession, their comparative duration, and their strength. In 



